


Just Let Me Know How Long

by IAmWhelmed



Series: Chronicles of Unrequited Love [3]
Category: Dead or Alive (Video Games)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Hurt Hitomi, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Kasumi and Hitomi bonding, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pregnancy, Protective Ayane, Protective Hayate, Protective Ryuu, Supportive Leifang, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:47:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29111787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmWhelmed/pseuds/IAmWhelmed
Summary: "What if I told you it's too late?What if I say that I can't wait?What if I meet somebody else who doesn't leave me on a shelf?I'll give you one more chance, but it only lasts..."-- Only Forever; Demi LovatoFor years, Hitomi has held her feelings for Ein-- Hayate-- close to her heart. It didn't matter if they couldn't be together, as long as they continued to circle each other like the sun and moon, in love but apart. But that all comes crashing down when Hayate's disposition makes it more than clear that her love has been unrequited all along.At the same time, NiCo makes a strike back in the face of Donovan's defeat, using Kasumi's DNA to carry on the work of her predecessor. The timing is unfortunate, as her first move marks the first week of Kasumi's pregnancy with the firstborn of her husband Ryuu Hayabusa. There are still whispers of discontent in the village that cry for her death, and Hayate's departure makes it difficult to find a caretaker capable enough to protect her in the later months of her pregnancy. Hayate is left with no choice but to call on the last person he'd want to ask a favor from-- Hitomi.
Relationships: Ayane & Kasumi (Dead or Alive), Hayate | Ein/Hitomi, Hitomi & Leifang (Dead or Alive), Jann Lee/Leifang, Kasumi & Hitomi, Kasumi/Hayabusa Ryuu
Series: Chronicles of Unrequited Love [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2135982
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Just Let Me Know How Long

She could feel his hands on her, warm with ardor, but fiery hot and swelling against her skin like the dragon he was. His nimble fingers undid the ties of her dress and his palms traced her torso, graced her chest so that she gasped and bent into him, and raised to set at her bare shoulders. It slid over the length of her arms and pooled at her feet, and she hid herself in her back-turned hands as his explored the precipices and fissures her tunic ordinarily hid. He pulled her flesh against his bare chest, her naked back to his muscle as his hands of ember lit her aflame on their journey. He felt her unfamiliar skin and she threw her head back into his shoulder, feeling alive and scorching her soul in a way her dreams never could. She’d expected him to be so much rougher, but every time he palmed her she felt the caress of a lover and not the fondling of a man driven by lust.

His lips on her skin, teeth grazing her shoulder, reassured her there was still plenty of that.

She reached back and ran a hand through his untied hair as best she could, but he’d turned her around and pulled her to him so suddenly she went limp with pleasure. Feeling him-- all of him-- against her, filling her as he held her in the arms he’d used to break and sunder any hand that dared touch a hair on her head.

He laid her down upon his futon-- their futon-- and made a woman of her, every hour of the night. Her hand, pawing for his until he entangled their fingers and pressed their limbs to the floor, reminded her what it meant to be his wife, demonstrated what the rest of her life would be like so long as she stayed by his side. She would, oh, she would. From that night forward she was The Wife of the Dragon Ninja, and that title she would embrace with every light in her soul.

Kasumi woke to the orange glow of the sun’s earliest greetings, rising from the open door of the dojo to fall upon her eyes in a halo of morning color; the futon was empty beside her, but she could hear the telltale grunts and metal clangs of him training outside the open door. She opened her eyes and twisted onto her side to face the rising sun, and the earlier-rising Super Ninja. He was half-dressed and swinging languidly at a training dummy, strokes so slow she almost swore he was toying around with his blade like a boy. Kasumi smiled, and rested her chin on the back of her hand and pillow, her other running in small circles at her abdomen.

* * *

“You know, I think a night out would get your mind off Mister What’s-His-Face!”

Hitomi rolled over from where she was lounging on her couch, brows furrowed at Leifang’s hand-to-hip posture-- and the glow on her face. “A night out?”

“You know, clubbing! Bar-hopping! Dancing!” Leifang’s smile grew an inch, cheeks a bright, cheery red to match the color of her dress, looking excitable. She was leagues more excited than Hitomi was, at any rate… “Let’s do it!”

She giggled. “You really think Jann Lee would be okay with that?”

Leifang scoffed. “Please! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” But she did, because her cheeks went from happy red to blushing pink, and there was a sudden skip in her teasing step. Hitomi smiled; even if she couldn’t be happy with the one she loved, she could live with her friend owning that happiness for herself. Out of everyone she knew, Leifang deserved it. She sat up and stretched as Leifang shook herself of her bashfulness. “What’s the problem with me looking for a good catch for my bestie?”

“I’m fine, I don’t need a catch!”

“You haven’t even dropped the bait! Come on! Let’s go out tonight and see what we can leave bleeding in the water!”

* * *

She usually shot for a cuter dress, something with an a-line that met her knees, but Leifang had her mind set on something… else. This dress might have met her knee at one leg, but the other side carried and bunched up at her waist, leaving only a thin second layer between her most personal of areas and the milky skin of her thigh. It was powder-blue, the color of a pastel-centered home in the suburbs, the kind of house with a white picket fence. She fondled the embroidered flower that pinned the bunched pattern of her dress, and tried to see the blue in the grey. They spent the night in a cushy restaurant with a fancy bar, the kind Hitomi only saw on one of Zack’s ships. Leifang picked the cherries from her drinks and swallowed them down with the grace and poise of a woman well-versed; she wondered how often she and Jann Lee practiced.

They stalked cute guys with their eyes and whispered to each other under their giggles, but like Leifang, there just wasn’t any heart to it. It was girls gossiping, having a good time. Leifang might have tricked herself into finding happiness with Chao Li, but Hitomi couldn’t do the same. No, there was only one man in her heart, and there was far more than a twisted tongue between the two of them. Well-- that was assuming her feelings were mutual, and she had no way of knowing that unless... 

She choked on a sip of soda that went down the wrong hole, and Leifang snickered. “Hey, Hitomi, I’m gonna run to the ladies room, be right back!”

“Oh, yeah, sure!”

And just like that, she was alone with a table seat on the balcony. She tilted her head over the stone and marble rail and watched the fountains run in ever-going rivers, forever repeating the same, beautiful cycle that brought life to the sculptures bearing their clear blood. With her chin in her hand, she wondered what the time was.

“Enjoying a night out?” She jumped and twisted in her seat.

“Hayate!”

He smiled at her, arms crossed over that unfamiliar ninja garb she should have been used to by now. She smiled back, and she tried to hide how her heart did a flip in her chest because  _ surely, for him to appear before her on a night like this, it must have been fate _ . He took the empty chair beside her at the table of four Leifang had reserved for two. “Does she drag you out like this often?”

“No, no! I’ve just been…” Sad? Lonely? Envious? “... a little down lately, and she thought a girl’s night would cheer me up.”

“And? Is it working?”

She blinked. “Um, maybe, now, a little.”

He laughed, and it sounded like stars and it felt like her chest was filled with gooey marshmallow. “So what? The expensive food didn’t lift your spirits?”

“Ah, it was more about the men.” Was it a mistake telling him that? Some small riggling part of her hoped it’d make him jealous, hoped he’d hear she was looking at other guys and feel that maybe he should make his feelings clear-- assuming he had any. About her. Like that. Her cheeks flushed, and she toyed with her pantihoes. So silly. Hayate wasn’t Jann Lee. He wouldn’t go around punching the lights out of every guy who made a move on her, he was much more mature than that. “Not that any have caught my eye!” Just one, she hissed to herself as she hurriedly backtracked over a trail he probably hadn’t even seen.

Hayate’s eyes twinkled with mirth, and he set his chin atop his knuckle as he leaned into the table. How thankful, she was, that their table was the only one amidst the balcony. “I doubt you’ll find him here, Hitomi.” Oh? Oh, she loved the way her stomach sang. It felt like she could suddenly eat so much more of the steak and veggies she’d hardly touched before. She tilted her head in askance, and he shook his. “A girl like you is going to find a man in the ring. Perhaps there’s a Dead or Alive competitor you’ve overlooked?” She laughed, and told him no, there wasn’t one, not that she could think of. She reminded herself: Hayate wasn’t Jann Lee, Hayate wouldn’t just suddenly realize he was madly in love with her because somebody else showed interest. He was encouraging her, because he was her friend, and he didn’t even know how she felt, so how could he encourage anything else? It would have been silly to get disappointed (but she was). Hayate might have read her mind, he must have, because suddenly his hand was on hers, and he was leaning forward, and-- oh god, his lips were right there, only inches away, and the way he was looking at her! His green eyes were dark and narrowed, and they were so intense that she felt her whole body shivering because  _ wow _ . The hand he’d set on hers was so warm, and she resisted the urge to turn her palm over and squeeze him back.

“Hitomi, I’m glad to see you are moving on.”

He was gone in the next moment, disappearing in a shift of wind that took the breath in her lungs right with it. She still felt the warmth of his hand on hers, but now she could feel it fleeting. Her body turned rigid, her muscles ached, and she realized she wasn’t breathing, and she wasn’t seeing anything. Time wasn’t moving. She stared ahead at the now-empty red cushion with gold rim where he’d been, and she felt her eyes burning, and she didn’t even know if it was because they’d been open so long or… The hand he’d held slumped back into her lap, and she cradled it protectively to her chest. Leifang might have come back, and she might have started crying, but she only knew one thing for sure: the fountains below had come to a sudden halt.

* * *

Kasumi stood in front of the full-length mirror before her, running one hand over the swell of her stomach, wondering how much longer it’d hide beneath her tomesode of blue and white. She giggled and spun in a small circle in her untied kimono, pressing her hands to her bare skin and feeling how the hard muscle there grew softer. She wondered what it would be like when it started moving, if she’d feel little limbs or tufts of hair? What would she crave? Would it be mochi like her mother, or would she just want more strawberry mille-feuille than usual? What a sight she would be, surrounded by layers of cream and sliced fruit! She’d heard that her sex drive would combust, and she wondered how her husband might handle her-- or all the ways he would. It’d been so long since she’d been so alight with happiness!

Kasumi took one last glance at herself and finally tied her tomesode. How was she going to tell that Super Ninja of hers that he was finally to become a father? Or her brother and sister they’d be an aunt and uncle? She’d soon be a mother! There was a skip in her step, and the women she passed in the village each day might have noticed, if the smiles on their faces had been as knowing as she thought they were. Today she’d stay home and prepare some tea, because he was coming home from a mission that’d denied her of a man in her marital bed for a week. As she sat in their tea room and boiled some water in her favorite tea pot, she giggled to herself. Because not long ago, she’d thought Ryu ever loving her would stay a dream. She'd thought returning to her village, not as a runaway kunoichi to be killed by her brother’s hands, but as the blood of the Head, was nothing but a fantasy she’d sometimes visit when she had a quiet moment. Now there she was, waiting for her husband to get home so she could tell him that  _ he was going to be a father _ . It was only a few minutes before Ryu opened the door to their tea room, and she was already visibly vibrating. “Kasumi.”

“Ryu, welcome home.”

“Mmm…”

She’d intended to help strip him of his guards and weapons and pads, but he’d already changed into his hakama pants and kimono, and she settled back into making the tea. “Green tea, your favorite.”

“You were waiting.”

“Since the moment you left.” He inhaled through his nose-- a laugh, and she took it with a small smile. “I take it you ended your mission victorious?”

“If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be home.”

He came to sit in front of her, crossed-legged as she poured him a cup. She’d read him his fortune later, after he’d finished his tea. He took the small cup in grateful hands, and she poured one for herself. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re home.”

“It means more than you know.” She let him see her smile, and found his eyes reflected the joy she was feeling. He was happy to be home, to have come home to her, and she didn’t need him to say it. He’d promised her that he’d love her until his last breath, and she’d love him well into their next life. “You’re happier than I expected, Kasumi. Is there something you’re not telling me?” She raised her cup to her lips and blew on it, then bit her lip to hide her smile. Ryu hummed again, and the humor she knew from his early years crept into his voice. “Has that brother of yours finally found a woman? Or has Ayane warmed up to having you around again?”

Well, Ayane had certainly warmed up, but that was a much slower process, and that relationship would regrow slowly but surely. The news she had now was much more exciting, and growing much faster. “Oh, not quite. I suppose she’s talking to me…”

“It couldn’t be because I’ve come home?”

She blushed. “I’m a new wife, after all.”

“Yes, but that’s not all, is it?”

Oh, he had her. She supposed she hadn’t been trying to keep it a secret, anyway. Kasumi set her cup down and stood, crossing only a few inches to instead sit beside her husband. He watched her with some amusement, side-eyeing her as she carefully undid the obe that tied her kimono. She pulled the front apart, just enough for him to see the skin of her stomach to the start of her shoulders. “I was going to wait to read your fortune.” His gaze grew heated, and she shot him a teasing look and a small shrug of her shoulders so the kimono inched until her breast was only barely hidden. She reached out and took his hand in her own, then set his palm upon her stomach. His breath caught, and she exhaled. “But, Ryu, I see lots of small dragons in your future.”

Both his hands were on her stomach, then, brushing, running his thumbs over the small of her tummy. The bump there was small, but she knew that didn’t matter to him. He leaned forward, pressed his forehead to her skin and closed his eyes. His hands held her to him, and though she always felt safe with him, for once she could tell-- he felt safe with her, there, in his arms. He kissed her stomach, then he leaned up and took her jaw in his hands and kissed her with abandon. Their lips seared as they came together, her stomach filled with spice, and he used one hand to rake his fingers through her hair as the rest of her kimono fell from her shoulders. She pulled away to breath, and he only let her go so far. “For carrying my child, Kasumi, I owe you my life.”

“I’ll carry many more, Ryu, how many lives do you have to give me?”

“As many as you’ll allow me to give.”

He kissed her again, and she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. One delicate hand raised up to unlatch his hairband, and when his golden locks fell, she took every strand in her fingers and pulled him closer.

* * *

Her head was pounding when she woke up. The sun that she so normally welcomed through the parted blinds of her apartment was an unsought symptom of a new day. She groaned and grabbed blindly at her pillow, pulling it over her face to hide away from the early rays. Just a few more minutes, a few more moments of blissful, dreamless sleep, where she could escape last night. Where her hand that had once been sweetly warm wasn’t now acrid and biting. The marshmallows that had once been so charming were now murky swamps in her lungs, clogging up her heart and welling her eyes with saltwater. She felt sick, right to her stomach. She didn’t want to wake up to a world where she had to let go of him, but there was no choice left to make.

So she forced herself up, carried her limp arms and heavy chest to the shower and washed away the makeup she hadn’t cried off last night. Streams of black clumped at her eyes before hot, steaming water fed at it and drew it away. She rubbed and scratched at her hand until it was red and irritated. Even with the sweltering heat of the stream set at its highest intensity, the skin he’d touched still felt caustic. As she dried herself, she wrapped it, just as she would have done in training.

Leifang was fast asleep on her couch, languidly resting with her head on one arm and her legs strewn over the other. The blanket she’d found for herself after-- what Hitomi only vaguely remembered-- putting her to bed was hardly large enough for her. Even so, she still looked so warm. She was smiling in her sleep, and her eyelids were fluttering. Every now and then, her wrist would twitch, and she’d make a noise; she was dreaming of Jann Lee, fighting him maybe. Something empty gnawed at her stomach, so she put on coffee.

She wondered if she’d ever see him again, if he’d pop in every now and then as he had before, or if he’d stop visiting because he thought she was totally over him-- how she wished that was. It was probably for the better that he didn’t, honestly. She wasn’t sure just how she’d handle seeing him now. She poured herself a cup, and though she thought about adding sugar, she instead took it with her to the reclining chair beside Leifang, sat down, and sipped at her black coffee.

* * *

NiCo should have been more of a concern. When Donovan lay at Hayate’s feet with a sword through his chest, when Kasumi and Ayane stood at his twitching corpse and watched as the last of his heinous, human-experimenting lab burned to the ground, it should have occurred to one of them-- any of them-- to look for NiCo. But when Kasumi was finally allowed to come home, when Ryu announced this evil ridded of the world, nobody did. So she came back, and she was carrying on his work, and it seemed like this damn mission was never done.

Kasumi sat across from Hayate and Ayane, and kept her hands in her lap despite the very recent urge to clasp Ryu’s hand as he sat beside her. It was again her DNA that NiCo had saved, that had escaped even the rummaged crisped building that had been Donovan’s lab. “It’s my DNA. I need to be the one to stop her.”

She wasn’t expecting all three of them to scoff. “Yeah, fat load of help you’re gonna be when that thing is 3 months in. Get a hold of yourself, Kasumi.”

“Ayane.” She huffed, and Hayate continued. “As much as I disagree with her wording, Kasumi, Ayane is right. You’re with child. The honor of bearing your first-born is more important than the honor of fulfilling a mission you already finished once.” He glanced at Ryu, who sat with his arms crossed and half his face covered by his mask. It was hard to read him that way, but she’d been his long enough to know he was scowling. “Especially a Hayabusa’s first-born.”

“But brother, I--!”

“Your brother is right, Kasumi.” She whipped her head to Ryu, and she hoped he could see her concern. “I will not risk my wife no matter how competent you may be, and I will certainly not risk the life of my child.” They were right. She knew they were. It just felt so… wrong, thrusting what would have been her responsibility upon the shoulders of those around her because she’d gone and gotten pregnant. “However, I also cannot agree to such an extended absence without proper reassurance Kasumi will be looked after. If I must not be here...”

“Ryu, she’s my sister. I promise we will have somebody--”

“Master Hayate, I’ll look after Kasumi.” All three turned to Ayane, who had said it with such conviction. She hadn’t seen her so resolute, not in anything but bringing her death when she’d still been a runaway kunoichi. Oh? Her heart jumped in her chest at the prospect. Spending time alone with Ayane-- for months. The first time since they were children. There was a determined look on that sister of hers, and their eyes met as a smile inched across her lips unknowingly.

“No, Ayane. I’ll need you by my side, as always.”

“What!” Maybe both girls should have been embarrassed for raising their voices at the Head of the Mugen Tenshin, but if there were special extenuating circumstances, this would be one. “But--!”

“No but! There are plenty of ninja I trust to look after Kasumi.”

“Brother,” Her tone was steeped in honey, but supercilious nevertheless. “With all due respect, these are the same ninja you sent after me with order to kill for six years, and not once did they accomplish their mission.” Ryu and Ayane fell silent, but the aura vibrating from Ryu’s rigid shoulders told her he was amused. Ayane herself was biting down a disobedient smirk. Hayate opened his mouth, then looked to Ryu, who sat perfectly still.

“There are still whispers of comeuppance in the Mugen Tenshin, Hayate. I trust that the ninja of my village would die for her sake, but I would prefer somebody like myself guarantee her safety.” Ah, that was why Ayane volunteered. Out of anybody, she would have heard the whispers most clearly, would have known what the cynics were murmuring when they thought nobody outside their circles were listening. Of course such conspirators would trust Ayane; and Ayane, as she sat with a grievous hung head and clenched fists in her lap, was wrong to be trusted. The most discouraging thing to do would be to have Kasumi and her child watched over by somebody important, somebody higher up on the totem pole than an individual ninja. Perhaps their mother was a safe bet, but she was not a woman who could fight-- any treasonist tenacious enough would recognize that.

Hayate nodded, then sighed, and then hung his head. “What would you have me do?”

“If you won’t let me look after her, Master Hayate,” there was a mischievous twing to Ayane’s voice, just low enough that a ninja not so familiar wouldn’t catch it, but just airy enough that Kasumi heard it. Hayate raised an eyebrow, and Ayane gave her best unassuming smile. “Might I suggest that friend of yours? The girl who nursed you when you went missing?”

* * *

She knew Leifang was determined to make her feel better. That fiery determination was what drew Hitomi to her, and it was what made them such good friends. But there wasn’t anything Leifang could do to make this muddy, messy, turbid feeling in her chest go away, not when it was still eating into her stomach and swallowing the rest of her emotions in fog. No amount of ice cream and romantic comedies could make its way through her clouded mind. Leifang, as stubborn as she was, conceded defeat. “I’m gonna find him and end him myself,” she was sure she heard her mumble on her way out the door. She was sure Leifang would try, and she even got a giggle out of her for it. It wasn’t like her to stay down for too long, and Leifang knew that, so she smiled at her as she crossed the front door threshold and told her to give her a call the next time she was looking for a good fight. Hitomi promised her she would.

It would take some time, but she’d be okay.

She just needed to get herself out of this funk, maybe by cooking endlessly, maybe by breaking some punching bags-- she couldn’t let herself sit and marinate like this. Maybe she’d go home to Germany for a little while, visit her father. It’d been a long time since she’d visited. Getting back to her roots was just what she needed, probably. She padded to her bedroom and propped her suitcase open on her bed. Shirts, pants, skirts, shoes-- she tucked them all neatly into the cushioned dull yellow of her suitcase. She’d find a plane ticket on the car ride over, text her dad and let him know she was coming down. He’d be happy to see her, and the thought of his warm arms taking her in a bear hug was enough to put the smallest of smiles on her face. She reached for her nightstand where her phone sat, plugged in (she’d have to thank Leifang for taking such good care of her the night before), and unlatched it to make a call for a ride.

“Planning on going somewhere?”

She jumped, and turned to her open bedroom window, and Hayate was squatting there on her windowsill. “Hayate…” Not Ein. Not the man she nursed back to health, not the man she and her father trained in karate, but the ninja who had a life that didn’t involve her. So why, why did he keep coming back? When she knew that he knew… “What brings you here?” She wasn’t the type to be nasty, even if he’d broken her heart, but she didn’t have to be as friendly, nor as eager as before. Because she wasn’t. There might have been a skip in her heart when she’d heard his voice, but it’d immediately fallen into the pit he’d created for her at the bottom of her stomach.

He wasn’t oblivious. His lips thinned when her tone didn’t reach the note it usually did when he popped in on her. He knew why. He stepped into her room, and she took a step back that didn’t go unnoticed. “Hitomi, perhaps this isn’t the best time to ask favors, but…”

A favor? Was something wrong? She set her phone down and nodded for him to keep going.

“My sister, Kasumi, do you remember her?”

“Of course. She won the first Dead or Alive tournament!”

“I need you to look after her for awhile.”

“Is she all right?”

“Yes, of course,” he looked around her room. He’d never been in her apartment before. Her walls were peach, welcoming just like she was, as she was even now, despite the hollow look in her eyes. It was girlish and innocent, with trims of white, patterned in frames she’d hung with pictures of her family and friends. Virtuous and clean, just like her. “She has recently married, and she is with child.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” She meant it, and he did too, but it was off. It was all off. She should have been smiling, he should have too. But she had her hands behind her back like a soldier at attention, and his were in fists at his sides, nails digging into his sweating palms. “I have to leave on a mission.”

“So you need me to look after her.”

“If you would.”

That wasn’t a question. He knew she’d do it. They both knew that. She gestured to her suitcase. “Yeah, sure! Just let me finish packing.”

He nodded, and she continued on as she would have before, though now she moved faster, setting her shirts in messier folds, just tossing her shoes in. She contemplated bringing her cell phone and her charger-- did the Mugen Tenshin have electricity? She stuffed it in her bag anyway. Hayate raised an eyebrow. “Before I came to you, where was it you were going?”

No reason not to tell him, she figured. “Home.”

“Oh, I see.”


End file.
